Spotlight

New Delhi, 24 February 2007

CENTRAL PLAN TO STRENGTHEN PANCHAYATS

NEW DELHI, February 24 (INFA): A concerted action plan has been drawn up by the Union Ministry for Panchayati Raj to strengthen the Panchayats across the country. The plan has been finalized in consultation with the Chief Ministers, which was done personally by the Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. He undertook a tour of as many as 17 States and two Union Territories along with the Panchayati Raj Ministers of the State concerned.

The priorities under the plan are: i) Detailed Activity Maps to be prepared in each State for the devolution of functions, spelling out the activities which are to be attributed to each level of the three-tier Panchayati Raj system so that there is no ambiguity or overlap about the tasks entrusted to them.

ii) Based on the Activity Maps, the opening of a Panchayat sector window through the insertion of an appropriate budget line in the budgets of line departments of the State Government to ensure the flow of funds to the Panchayats.

iii) In conformity with the devolution of Functions and Finances, the Devolution of Functionaries to the level of the Panchayat to which any given activity has been devolved.

It is expected that suitable Activity Maps for each State/UT will be ready by the end of 2007.

The Union Government is a significant source of funds for rural areas through Central sector and Centrally-sponsored schemes. Therefore, in consultation with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, all Union Ministries are currently reviewing their schemes to ensure the centrality of Panchayats.

District Planning Committees (DPCs) are required to “consolidate” (and not prepare) the draft district plan.

This implies: a) the district plan is required to emerge from plans prepared by each village, intermediate and district panchayat and municipality for the functions assigned to them. (b) when plans from all these levels reach the DPCs, they should “consolidate” these into a “draft” district development plan and forward them to State Governments for finalization.

An Expert Committee set up by the Ministry has set out the steps by which grassroots planning can be implemented.

The situation in the States with regard to the constitution of District Planning Committees (DPCs) is uneven.  Thus, Kerala’s “People’s Planning Movement” has attracted world-wide attention. But in some States, while the DPCs have been constituted, they are yet to be made fully operational.

In other States, district planning of a kind is operational but the DPCs have not been constituted in accordance with Constitutional provisions.

The Planning Commission and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj are trying to ensure that by the end of first year of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, Annual State Plans are built through the bottom-up process specified in the Constitution.---INFA